STUDY: Young People Want Money For All The Wrong Reasons

A recent study
found that Americans fall into four categories when it comes to
how they view money: "money avoidance, money worship, money
status and money vigilance." Most fall into the first three.

Professor Brad Klontz at Kansas State University asked 422
subjects, who made from under $30,000 to over $100,000, primarily
grew up middle-class and were college-educated, questions about
money-related beliefs. The respondents fell into these
categories:

Money Avoidance: If you're in this category, you
believe money is bad or that you don't deserve it. You stay away
from credit cards, are risk-averse and probably have a low net
worth. People tend to grow out of this category as they age.

Money Worship: This is the classic "money makes
everything better" worldview. It is also the definition of greed.
White people are more likely to be in this group than other
races. Young, single people weighed down by credit card debt make
up the biggest part of this group.

Money Status: Your self worth and net worth are
interconnected. Unfortunately, this obsession with materialism
"has been associated with lower ratings of well-being, lower
levels of self-actualization, vitality and happiness, and higher
levels of anxiety, physical symptoms and unhappiness." Also
composed mostly of young singles, this group tends to be less
well educated.

Money Vigilance: Give yourself a pat on the back
if you're in this category. You have a certain "alertness,
watchfulness, and concern about money." At the same time,
"excessive wariness or anxiety regarding pending financial danger
keeps someone from enjoying the benefits and sense of security
that money can provide." This group is disproportionately
non-white and includes many people who don't hold credit cards.

Childhood experiences had the biggest influence on the
responders' views of money and economic status. If one's parents
had a healthy approach to finances, it was more likely the next
generation would too.

This study is a reminder that consumers can be just as stupid as
banks, Klontz told the
New York Times: “The predatory lending and the greedy people
on Wall Street, they’ve certainly played a role in this, but what
led you to buy a house you couldn’t afford, even if someone let
you do it? If you’re willing to look at the answer to that, the
likelihood of you making the same mistakes diminishes greatly.”